Community is understanding that my seaweed and your seaweed are linked. That
there is an Internet of seaweed. That it is organic, and when I touch you or
eat you I am celebrating the fact that the systems which make me make you and
everything else. But I didn't just realize this after dropping a bunch of acid
and that's it now, all done. I know that there is a price for this. We need to
pay our way into being connected the way we want to. Being a member of a
community may be free, but where we stand in this network is based on an
on-going process of reciprocal negotiations. If I choose to buy it all out, "
can move to the next level.

Component #2: Artistes

In Our Community, there are a lot of Artists. This is good because they will
pay a lot of money to make interesting things. That is why we can have a mall
in Williamsburg now. Artists are store-owners which render the ideas that flow
within the community into models: patterns of thoughts, behaviors, emotions,
prejudices, or reactions. Artists' models are based on everything from dirt to
slices of pizza to henna washes to trinkets. This interpretive class furnishes
the community with its currency. A photograph of a neighborhood scene is an
invitation to the viewer to cherish that moment and location as something
distinctive and valuable.

Component #3: Artisans

Business people traffic the models which artists create. Because they
understand the price point of Our Community, they know what some people will
pay for what other people make. They know how much those people make and can
afford to pay these people. With this and that and all other things in mind,
they start businesses with various distribution channels that look like seaweed
if you study their patterns closely.

Component #4: Artifacts

Tangible objects are the substance of Our Community. Artifacts are passed
around among community members and accumulate value within themselves.
Artifacts such as apartments, vegetables, and 45 rpm records are what attract
outsiders into Our Community; that is, the allure of the artifacts themselves,
or the promise of amassing them. People will pay big bucks for good artifacts.
There are certain kinds of people who like to refer to culture rather than
create it. These are typically the types that get into artifacts the most.

Component #5: Artifice

Symbolic value is the measure of the worth of artifacts. How much you lust for
what I have or how beautiful you think I am will determine how much I have to
fake what I cost. Some objects are worth more than others because they embody
certain glamorous characteristics; a signed first edition, for example, which
is functionally equivalent to the same text published as a mass-market
paperback. My photographs aren't cheap.